Template talk:Infobox television channel

Template:Infobox television channel is permanently protected from editing as it is a heavily used or highly visible template. Substantial changes should first be proposed and discussed here on this page. If the proposal is uncontroversial or has been discussed and is supported by consensus, editors may use {{edit template-protected}} to notify an administrator or template editor to make the requested edit. Usually, any contributor may edit the template's documentation to add usage notes or categories. Any contributor may edit the template's sandbox. Functionality of the template can be checked using test cases.

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Infoboxes This template is within the scope of WikiProject Infoboxes, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Infoboxes on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks. Television: Stations Television portal This template is within the scope of WikiProject Television, a collaborative effort to develop and improve Wikipedia articles about television programs. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join the discussion. For how to use this banner template, see its documentation. This template is supported by the Television stations task force.

This template was considered for merging with Template:Infobox broadcast on 8 September 2013. The result of the discussion was "no consensus".

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Make cable provider/channel number collapsable by country or continent?

The cable provider and channel list is getting kinda long as more and more countries get cable TV is there a way to make a collapsable list by country? So like "United States" may have within "DirecTV, Dish Network, Fios, Time Warner, Cox, etc." U.K. might have "Sky, etc., etc.... ", Canada "Rogers, Bell, Shaw, etc., etc." CaribDigita (talk) 00:52, 22 April 2013‎ (UTC)[reply]

If not by country perhaps why not by continent? Africa, Americas , Asia, Europe, Oceania?

Owner vs. parent

Is there a discussion or precedent somewhere indicating what the "owner" and "parent" fields should be used for? In my mind, "parent" should refer to the ultimate parent company of a property, and "owner" should refer to a subsidiary or licensee underneath that parent company, but I've frequently seen the opposite, and in some cases I've seen it switched. The documentation seems to be silent on this so I would appreciate any pointers on this. — stickguy (:^›)— || talk || 18:57, 28 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Stickguy I'm not quite sure myself. I think the idea was that in some cases there might be a domestic subsidiary (e.g. Disney Star). It was added to Infobox broadcasting network here in 2010 and to this template upon the 2020 overhaul, which incorporated the former's templates so that transclusions could be converted. Is it worth getting rid of? It's in use in 509 transclusions compared to 5557 for owner. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 22:44, 28 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

'Online' field

It says As of February 11, 2022, satellite, cable and IPTV channel number fields have been removed. Online fields will be removed soon (to allow for appropriate live stream links to be saved).

I think it was the right decision to remove those but Online still remains 3 years later? Kllom (talk) 17:23, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Kllom What needs to happen is a lot of links in there need to be changed to |webcast= which was added at the same time. If you want to get rid of the online field, take a look at the template report and at the 1,481 uses of |online_serv_1= and start moving them to |webcast= if appropriate. Sammi Brie (she/her · t · c) 17:59, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting that this now makes me ask if this is necessary to keep. Like is it actually a good idea to have webcast links here on TV channel articles? Because I think (looking at the old Removal discussion) that this also probably counts as part of 'NOT A DIRECTORY'. In my view the webcast links are no different than the removed channel numbers like satellite, and maybe it's even worse because it is more open to abuse. I would favor removing it altogether, just my opinion. Kllom (talk) 19:45, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Kllom Enough channels have free live streams that it's useful. We have live stream links on radio station pages, for instance. Sammi Brie (she/her · t · c) 19:46, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Add the Slogan parameter

Im trying to work on Duck TV (Latin America) Imakeflagsthe4th (talk) 15:21, 9 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Imakeflagsthe4th It was removed in 2021 at a time when similar parameters were being dropped from other infoboxes. See this discussion. Sammi Brie (she/her · t · c) 18:20, 9 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]